Kegan, Santa's Elf

Friday , December 22, 2017 - 2:04 PM

BEN DORGER/Standard-Examiner

Not many teenagers love Christmas as much as Kegan McCulloch. For the 18-year-old Roy High School graduate, the holiday is year round.
“He’s had a Santa outfit since he was little,” his mother Heather McCulloch said. The spirit of the season can be seen throughout the McCulloch home.
A bright white Christmas tree with glittering blue ornaments, a colorful Santa pillow proclaiming “Believe… in the magic of Christmas” sitting on the couch. Beaming photos of Kegan with Santa are displayed throughout the living room.
When the holiday is done, the majority of the decorations head up to Kegan’s room until December comes again.
For a young man living with Down syndrome who is nonverbal, Kegan has a lot to say. In a letter his mother helped write, addressed to North Pole Industries, Kegan asked for an internship as an elf. “I am proficient in the art of greeting people and making them smile,” the letter read.
His mother decided why not. Her son should be an elf if he wanted to be an elf. After contacting Newgate Mall in Ogden, Kegan got the job.
Dressed in his elf outfit next to his parents, Kegan peered intently at his phone as he typed into a voice app. The bells on his hat jingled as he looked up and smiled before tapping his screen a final time.
“I work with Santa,” the electronic voice said.